Thu, November 11, 2021
Dinner Program

Brian Castner, a Bronze Star recipient, served three tours of duty in the Middle East, two of them in Iraq as the head of an Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit. Whenever IEDs were discovered, he and his team would lead the way in either disarming the deadly devices or searching through rubble and remains for clues to the bomb-makers’ identities. And when robots and other remote means failed, one technician would suit up and take the Long Walk to disarm the bomb by hand. Returning home to his wife and family, Castner entered an inexorable struggle against the enemy within, which he comes to call the “Crazy.” This thrilling, heartbreaking, stunningly honest memoir alternates between two harrowing realities: the terror, excitement, and camaraderie of combat, and the lonely battle against the unshakeable fear, anxiety, and survivor guilt that he—like so many veterans—carries inside.